I Trust Keith Giffen
Today on Newsarama, Keith Giffen said this:
"It's the future. It's the 31st Century. The book is its own entity, and it's really not tied into much of anything at all. I mean, everyone knows who the Justice League is, so it's tied into the DCU that way. But it would be unfair to put out a book that insists you're familiar with another book.
So to answer your question, no. This is its own entity.
[...]
If I need a guy who can throw fireballs around, you can guarantee it's not going to be Sun Boy. Let's think of somebody new. I'm tired of treading old ground. I have as much affection for the Legion of Super-Heroes as anybody -- maybe more than most, since I kept returning to the book like a mental patient. But this isn't the Legion. And it shouldn't be judged on Legion of Super-Heroes terms. Sorry Legion fans, but you're going to have to wait until somebody comes up with a take on the Legion. This is not a Legion of Super-Heroes book. They're not going to be going to Braal. Trust me."
I trust you, Keith, and I thank you for making this clear to me.
I will not read this comic book.
Labels: Legion of Super-Heroes, Site/Legion Info
posted by Matthew E @ 8:51 PM
11 Comments:
Neither will I. The Legion will end with #23, and it may very well be the end of 50 years of comics history. I'm just glad Giffen made it plain that JL 3000 will not have any connection with the Legion universe. That way I won't waste any money looking for one. When the Legion is done, I'm done with DC Comics!
They'll be back. Well, unless DC stops publishing comics before some writer can get around to bringing them back, which I suppose is not entirely out of the question.
I just cannot and will not BEAR any iteration of my beloved LSH being co-opted into a future version of the JLA. For me, the LSH is everything. Apart from Birds of Prey, Batwoman and Wonder Woman its the only book I buy from DC - and its the first I read.
I adore Giffen's work - he revitilized the book in the 80s for which I shall be forever grateful - but I do. not. want. a Justice. Legion. in. any. shape. or. form.
I agree with you that DC will bring the LSH back at some point - its not a franchise like Bats or Supes but it has its own unique fanbase all its own.
I just wish we knew it would be an actual LSH we can recognize.
That's not what it's allegedly going to be, though. It's going to be a future Justice League; nothing Legionish about it. Giffen said so. Apparently there just isn't going to be any Legion for a while, or something; we'll learn everything we can learn about that from LSH #23 in a couple of months.
As for what DC is going to do with the Legion, eventually, well, I dunno. But there's too much history there to not do anything ever. We might not like it when it comes. But then again we might. Remember, there are writers and artists out there who love the Legion, too, including some who aren't even in comics yet but who grew up reading it.
I have been following the Legion since the mid sixties through thick and thin, good writers bad writers, good artist’s bad artist’s, cancellations and re-launches.
Occasionally I have followed other comics for a few years then dropped them, but the Legion has always been a constant with me.
Over the last few years I have started to become disenchanted with most comics so with the current ending of the Legion I think this will be a good time to stop my comic collecting until the Legion return.
Till then:- Long Live the Legion
Like Philip12, the Legion has been the one through line of comic reading since I was a boy in the 70s.
It has seemed to be for years that giving Paul back the legion was a pay back for leaving the publisher's chair gracefully. But he is much the same writer he has always been, only working with fewer pages. His writing style that was ahead of his time in the 80s is behind the times now. Comic book writing has grown and deepened over the decades and Paul's time in the c-suite didn't afford him the opportunity to keep up. And those extra pages were where all the foreshadowing, characterization, and random plotting that made that run so great lived.
Does anyone else wonder what a Geoff Johns Legion might look like? When he revived the original team he clearly planted a lot of seeds intending the the blossom all over the DCU, but then the book was give the Paul. His work showed a reverence for the original team and a strong personal take on them. To me, that would be an interesting read. A boy can dream. Long Live the Legion.
Philip12: Have you tried Abnett and Lanning's Hypernaturals? It's not the Legion, but it lives right down the street from it. There are quite a few good comics out there, including many not by Marvel or DC, that are not a waste of your time.
Douglas: I think Geoff Johns's take on the Legion is a comic book where Superman does cool stuff and the Legion stands around in the background and talks about how awesome Superman is.
I agree with other posters. The Legion is the only comic book I buy regularly right now and with its impending cancellation, it looks like I won't be buying anything, at least for a while.
And, yes, Matthew, based on your recommendation, I picked up Hypernaturals #1 & #2. I liked them and I'm trying to find the rest of the run. Do you know if the book was cancelled (with issue #12) or if the run was always intended to be 12 issues?
I don't know! I was wondering that myself. Be quite a kick in the pants if it was cancelled.
The problem with JL3K is a "smoking gun" situation. You can say "It's not a Legion book" until you are blue in the face, but then why the f--- did you put it in the 31st century if you don't want Legion fans thinking it is for them?
Put it in the 41st century, or the 27th century, and go wild with the future JL knife twisting. But when you put it in the 31st century, all you are going to do is alternately tease and stab one of the two set of fans you can count on for this book.
Unless it really is a stealth Legion book, it's kind of dumb to do that.
They're okay with Legion fans thinking the book is for them. What they're not okay with is non-Legion fans thinking that the book is for Legion fans.
Sure, the Legion fans might be ticked off when they don't get the pseudo-Legion book they thought they were getting, but a) once they see JLMMM they might like it anyway, and b) DC already gave Legion fans what they wanted* when they gave the retroboot Legion its own title with Paul Levitz writing it, and look at how that turned out.
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*Right? Isn't that what everybody wanted?
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